We arrived back yesterday morning, on the hole we had a good holiday with lots of highs and lows, and came home to some terrible news, DH was made redundant in May but he had managed to secure a job at Heathrow starting Oct 1st, received a letter whilst away to say due to financial restrainst they are not employing any more securtiy personel, so now no job!! we are devestated.
But more about the holiday, we arrived in Orlando on 6th August, and stayed one night at the Amerisuites near the airport, good, clean hotel with free buffet breakfast, spent the first day looking around beltz etc. and went to Villa in Indian Point, to find the kitchen table crawling with ants!!!, tried to phone management co. but no answer so went to Walmart and bought ant spray, which worked. The next few days passed no problems we were really enjoying oursleves and then Charley raised her ugly head, we and many others thought that she would miss Orlando and even went to Epcot on the morning of the 13th, although it closed at 1 pm we went back to the villa still not to worried, to find the management co banging on the door, they wanted to put the pool furniture into the pool for safety, they weren't to impressed that we had gone out that morning!. First real sign of Charley was about 4.30 p.m. when the power failed, so we put on the small $5 radio we went bought only to hear these really strange sounds (which we soon discovered was a tornado warning for Poinciana and Osceola area), so we entered the walk in closed for the first time that night. Once that storm had passed and the all clear given we had a look around outside not to bad, and power came back quite quickly. Put the telly on to follow the news and played a couple of games with the children (cards that is), and then came the second power cut, and tornado warning, so back in the closet, for much longer this time, the eye must have passed quite close, when the worst had passed we were so relieved the children were obvioulsy very upset, so went into the family room, and spent a couple of hours there until the emergency lights failed, by this time the worst was over and we got the boys to bed, just as the management co. phoned to check that we were OK, the one and only time they did phone us! The next morning we still had no power and by now the phone wasn't working either, we went for a walk aroung Indian point - teribble- trees down, slates missing from roofs and lanies (did I spell that right), in pools. Spent most of the morning at the Villa, quite expecting the management Co. to come and check on us, but it got so hot that we decided to take the children for something to eat - Oh that was fun, no where was open, around the 192 no power or the restaurants were devestated, so as we have ap's decided to try MGM for food, heard on the radio that they were open, well everyone and his wife had the same idea!!, but we got some hot food and a coffee, I needed that badly for my nerves, well to cut a long story short, we went 5 days without power, we phoned the management co. twice for help only to be regailed with all there porblems, we contacted alliance and leicester, our insurance, not covered and not willing to help us at - they will be hearing from me!! In the end I phone the UK to speak to the Villa owner to see if she had any ideas or knew of any empty villas we could move to only to discover that the management co. had told her we had only gone 48 hrs without power and were alright etc. etc., she couldn't help but luckily withing 2 hours of phone her the power was restored, we were so happy!, the pool wasn't cleaned until 3 days later and then the phone never worked again, despite telling the management co on more than one occassion.
We have this villa booked for next August, although seriously considering cancelling and finding another villa, I have written to the owner about her management company, and how little help we recieved, even after he told me that we were the only family in any of his villas - all the others had been moved or gone to hotels - se he really didnot have much else to do!! -
I will try and do a trip report but I am so uptight over it all and then DH job that at the moment I want a strong drink and to get my thoughts together before I do anything rash!!!
But more about the holiday, we arrived in Orlando on 6th August, and stayed one night at the Amerisuites near the airport, good, clean hotel with free buffet breakfast, spent the first day looking around beltz etc. and went to Villa in Indian Point, to find the kitchen table crawling with ants!!!, tried to phone management co. but no answer so went to Walmart and bought ant spray, which worked. The next few days passed no problems we were really enjoying oursleves and then Charley raised her ugly head, we and many others thought that she would miss Orlando and even went to Epcot on the morning of the 13th, although it closed at 1 pm we went back to the villa still not to worried, to find the management co banging on the door, they wanted to put the pool furniture into the pool for safety, they weren't to impressed that we had gone out that morning!. First real sign of Charley was about 4.30 p.m. when the power failed, so we put on the small $5 radio we went bought only to hear these really strange sounds (which we soon discovered was a tornado warning for Poinciana and Osceola area), so we entered the walk in closed for the first time that night. Once that storm had passed and the all clear given we had a look around outside not to bad, and power came back quite quickly. Put the telly on to follow the news and played a couple of games with the children (cards that is), and then came the second power cut, and tornado warning, so back in the closet, for much longer this time, the eye must have passed quite close, when the worst had passed we were so relieved the children were obvioulsy very upset, so went into the family room, and spent a couple of hours there until the emergency lights failed, by this time the worst was over and we got the boys to bed, just as the management co. phoned to check that we were OK, the one and only time they did phone us! The next morning we still had no power and by now the phone wasn't working either, we went for a walk aroung Indian point - teribble- trees down, slates missing from roofs and lanies (did I spell that right), in pools. Spent most of the morning at the Villa, quite expecting the management Co. to come and check on us, but it got so hot that we decided to take the children for something to eat - Oh that was fun, no where was open, around the 192 no power or the restaurants were devestated, so as we have ap's decided to try MGM for food, heard on the radio that they were open, well everyone and his wife had the same idea!!, but we got some hot food and a coffee, I needed that badly for my nerves, well to cut a long story short, we went 5 days without power, we phoned the management co. twice for help only to be regailed with all there porblems, we contacted alliance and leicester, our insurance, not covered and not willing to help us at - they will be hearing from me!! In the end I phone the UK to speak to the Villa owner to see if she had any ideas or knew of any empty villas we could move to only to discover that the management co. had told her we had only gone 48 hrs without power and were alright etc. etc., she couldn't help but luckily withing 2 hours of phone her the power was restored, we were so happy!, the pool wasn't cleaned until 3 days later and then the phone never worked again, despite telling the management co on more than one occassion.
We have this villa booked for next August, although seriously considering cancelling and finding another villa, I have written to the owner about her management company, and how little help we recieved, even after he told me that we were the only family in any of his villas - all the others had been moved or gone to hotels - se he really didnot have much else to do!! -
I will try and do a trip report but I am so uptight over it all and then DH job that at the moment I want a strong drink and to get my thoughts together before I do anything rash!!!
It sounds as if the management comopany could have done much more
